President Obama's Wall Street salary cap may be well
intentioned and it certainly taps into public sentiment, but it's a
killer for New York.

"Without the talent of Wall Street to bring us back into a
position of leadership in the global economy, we're going to be in bad
shape as a world economic power," said Kathryn Wilde of the Partnership
for New York.

Wylde says the Obama salary cap will lead to a critical
brain drain - China and the United Arab Emirates have already come to
poach Wall Street talent. She also says lower salaries in the financial
industry will mean dramatically lower tax revenues for the city and
state.

"We also depend heavily on the financial services
industry to fund our economy and our tax rolls," said Wylde. "Last year
20 percent of our income taxes in the states - 12 percent in New York
City came from Wall Street."

I have to admit, this is the most ridiculous article I have ever read. Where will all the wall street brains go? I mean, c'mon, what kind of brains are these guys? Guys / girls that brought us here in the first place.

It is a disaster that only Chris Martenson and Ron Paul are doing something. Are the americans so stupid or they just don't care if someone is stealing from them? I do not understand that american people are not aware that they are supporting the biggest theft of all times. And the theft is not secret. This is beyond my wildest imagination and I can not explain it.

How many punches can you fellow americans take before you start fighting / punching back?

Yes. And ... the author is forgetting that they used their talent to make highly leveraged investments in dubious ventures (too many houses for example), lull everyone else into believing it was a good idea and then taking huge salaries and bonuses from the proceeds even though they knew it would all blow up in a few years. Perhaps this time they would put their talent to more productive use, but I wouldn't trust them.

President Obama's Wall Street salary cap may be well
intentioned and it certainly taps into public sentiment, but it's a
killer for New York.

"Without the talent of Wall Street to bring us back into a
position of leadership in the global economy, we're going to be in bad
shape as a world economic power," said Kathryn Wilde of the Partnership
for New York.

Wylde says the Obama salary cap will lead to a critical
brain drain - China and the United Arab Emirates have already come to
poach Wall Street talent. She also says lower salaries in the financial
industry will mean dramatically lower tax revenues for the city and
state.

"We also depend heavily on the financial services
industry to fund our economy and our tax rolls," said Wylde. "Last year
20 percent of our income taxes in the states - 12 percent in New York
City came from Wall Street."

I have to admit, this is the most ridiculous article I have ever read. Where will all the wall street brains go? I mean, c'mon, what kind of brains are these guys? Guys / girls that brought us here in the first place.

It is a disaster that only Chris Martenson and Ron Paul are doing something. Are the americans so stupid or they just don't care if someone is stealing from them? I do not understand that american people are not aware that they are supporting the biggest theft of all times. And the theft is not secret. This is beyond my wildest imagination and I can not explain it.

How many punches can you fellow americans take before you start fighting / punching back?

hpernar,

It may not seem like it but there are millions of Americans (e.g. those who voted for Ron Paul and those on this site) who are angry at what has occurred and is still occurring. However, like a huge oil tanker (excuse the analogy), it takes time to bring the ship around.

Perhaps these times we are currently going through will be seen by history as the time the ship began to change direction.

Short of a full blown 2nd American Revolution, I don't see any dramatic changes on the horizon. I think it will take a gradual awakening on the part of the American populace for reality to sink in enough for real change to take place.

"Short of a full blown 2nd American Revolution, I don't see any dramatic
changes on the horizon. I think it will take a gradual awakening on the
part of the American populace for reality to sink in enough for real
change to take place."

Unfortunately Sam, we don't have time for "gradual awakening". The stadium water is lapping at our feet, and we are still shackled to the top row of seats...

Normally, I don't like the drivel that comes out of the NY Times, but this has been the only rational argument on this topic. Well done, Mr Hastings. The rest of the arguments have been nothing but emotive rhetoric.

"Short of a full blown 2nd American Revolution, I don't see any dramatic
changes on the horizon. I think it will take a gradual awakening on the
part of the American populace for reality to sink in enough for real
change to take place."

Unfortunately Sam, we don't have time for "gradual awakening". The stadium water is lapping at our feet, and we are still shackled to the top row of seats...

Without taxpayer money those high paid CEOs would be out of a job. So nothing is lost if they go elsewhere. There might even be a gain for the US if they find jobs in in other countries where they can bankrupt those countries. You don't reward incompetant CEOs with high salaries.You fire them.

The salary cap is a facade. Companies that have already received bailouts are exempt, even if they get more bailouts.

The salary cap doesn't preclude other perquisites like stocks.

Last but not least, those companies shouldn't be getting one cent of taxpayer money. Obama threw in the meaningless cap to make the bailout more acceptable to an angry public.

Bubble II was a cooperative effort of FIRE-sector speculators,
incompetent regulators, and Congressional nonfeasance of its oversight
duties. A logical counterpart to salary caps for banksters would be
pension caps for lawmakers. The longest timeservers in the House and
Senate can accumulate pension packages worth multi-millions -- many, many
times what middle class citizens can ever hope to attain.

Here's
a modest proposal: limit Congressional pensions to no more than three
times the average Social Security payout. For instance, if a typical
SocSec payout is $1,500 a month, then retired politicians would get a
maximum of $4,500 a month. To increase their pensions, they would have
to improve the lot of ordinary folks on Social Security. It would be
amazing how quickly they would extend ERISA requirements to Social
Security, install competent third-party management with fiduciary
responsibility to beneficiaries, and dump the entire portfolio of
'non-marketable' Treasurys -- if necessary, suing Usgov in federal
court to exchange them for marketable ones.

To crack down on
banksters for their screwups, while failed lawmakers continue to get a
luxurious, inflation-indexed free ride, is hypocritical and
unacceptable. Slash their pensions till the pips squeak!